People walk by a campaign poster of the presidential elections for the incumbent President Bashar Assad in Damascus, Syria, on May 24. / AP

by Special for USA TODAY, Rasha Faek and John Dyer

by Special for USA TODAY, Rasha Faek and John Dyer

AMMAN, Jordan - Civil war has cast a pall over the ancient, cultured capital of Syria.

Unemployment and poverty are soaring. Fighting has reduced some suburban neighborhoods to rubble, while refugees from the war occupy abandoned buildings and public spaces. Schooling is haphazard, relationships interrupted and daily life altered.

"The electricity cuts off every four hours and then comes back for two hours," said Amira Ibrahim, a mother of three children in Damascus. "I have to wash clothes, iron and cook during these two hours."

"I have to help my kids also with their homework - there's no time for television cartoons," she added. "They need to finish their homework before the power cuts off again."

Yet some aspects of life in Damascus remain the same: Syrians are voting Tuesday to elect a president, and it's a foregone conclusion that incumbent President Bashar Assad will win by a wide margin.

Even though Assad is allowing two little-known parliament members to run against him this year - giving Syrian voters a choice among candidates for the first time in history - he'll likely garner nearly 100% of the vote, like when he last ran for office seven years ago.

"Syrians will speak their minds (today) during elections â?? they will choose a leader who will preserve security and preserve sovereignty," wrote official daily Al-Thawra.

When the polls close, Assad will almost certainly point to his landslide win as proof of his legitimacy. Today, however, after rebels have been fighting al-Assad's forces with mixed success for three years and the country's economy is in tatters, Syrians won't be so quick to accept the results.

"Elections have never be free in Syria, and they are certainly not going to be this time either," said Anna Boyd, a Middle East specialist at IHS in London. "It is very difficult to see how can they hold elections in much of the country because the government simply doesn't control much of the country."

Radwan Sayed, 37, lost his auto repair shop when fighting spread to his neighborhood in Rif Dimashq in the suburbs of Damascus. Asked if he thought the elections would be legitimate, he scoffed at the question.

"I do not care if it is legitimate or illegitimate," he said. "All we have witnessed for three years is inhumane and not legitimate. We only ask for a final solution to our tragedy. Will this election end our tragedy or not? Of course not. It is going to increase tension and division."

More than 150,000 have died in the Syrian war, according to the United Nations. Fighting has displaced 5.8 million people. The war has dealt a body blow to the economy: The U.N. estimates that nearly 8 million people have fallen into poverty since the fighting began. Unemployment stands at almost 50%. Schools, hospitals and other institutions are on the verge of closing.

"We are tired of war and want peace," said Tarek Abdullah, 29, a schoolteacher in Damascus, who says that at the start of the school year last year, he had 30 students. Toward the end, he had 18 due to shelling.

Every day routines in Damascus and elsewhere in regime-held areas have been distorted. People go out to meet friends and family earlier and less often because of checkpoints. Once promising relationships have been put on hold as potential partners have fled. Even weddings, gala celebrations that ran all night, are more modest - and over by early afternoon.

International efforts to end the fighting have fizzled. The United States insists that Assad step down, but President Obama so far has refused to become involved militarily. Russia and Iran, meanwhile, continue to back Assad's regime while Saudi Arabia backs the rebels.

In recent months, Assad has had less incentive to accept peace with harsh conditions. Infighting among secular and radical Muslim rebel groups has given Assad an advantage in the war and made the White House leery of helping opposition groups with links to terrorism. The Syrian president has retaken territory, stemmed attacks in central Damascus and crushed the resistance in their former stronghold in Homs, Syria's third-largest city.

His victories on the battlefield have done more to undergird his regime than contested elections ever could, says Joshua Landis, a Middle East Studies professor at the University of Oklahoma. A few years ago, many felt Assad's days in power were coming to an end. Now his fortunes are on the rise.

"The government has got the upper hand," Landis said. "The West always wants somebody to replace Assad that would be a little better, but they have never been able to engineer it."

The elections would have been a perfect opportunity for Assad to step down with dignity so that someone else could negotiate an end to hostilities, Boyd said. But in light of the Syrian government's recent military successes, if Assad leaves, his replacement would certainly come from the same leaders who are currently cracking down on the rebellion.

"For most of the rebels, this is completely unacceptable," she said.

That hard-line stance against Assad can be found in rebel-held regions like Azaz, a small town outside Aleppo, where the government won't even be opening polling stations. Different rebel groups and government forces have been fighting back and forth over Azaz for years, ruining neighborhoods and lives in the process.

A rebel sympathizer who owns a vegetable stand in Azaz, Abu Adna, 27, didn't take the upcoming vote seriously

"Which election?" he said. "There are airstrikes every day, hundreds of people die every day. Any person who votes for Bashar is against the Syrian people."

But Adna added that the upcoming elections remind him of the democracy he and other opposition supporters are seeking to establish.

"Now, it is fake." he said. "This election is not democratic. In the future, I want a real election."